Since its introduction, the telephone has been used as a marketing instrument, and often it has served as an instrument for unsolicited advertisers. In recent years, such unsolicited “telemarketing” has become widespread, and annoying to many telephone subscribers.
Fortunately, the advent of digital telephony has given users and telephone companies the ability to limit the effectiveness of such calls. In particular, incoming telephone calls are now typically accompanied with calling party identification (“caller-ID”) information. Telephone companies and equipment providers have allowed telephone subscribers to handle calls from unknown or unwanted callers.
For example, many telephone service providers now provide subscribers with a service that prevents unwanted incoming calls from ringing through to the subscriber's phone. A conventional call blocking service enables subscribers to maintain a blocked numbers list. Incoming calls that originate from any one of the listed numbers are prevented from ringing through to the subscriber's phone at the telephone company local office. Upon attempting to call the subscriber, a blocked caller will typically hear a pre-recorded message stating that the subscriber is not accepting the call. Typically, the call blocking service is provided by the telephone service provider for an additional monthly fee.
As an alternate to the telephone company services, an incoming call screening device may be attached at the customer premises (usually integrated into the telephone set). Typical call screening devices decode the caller-identification signal, which is sent over the local loop between the first and second ring signals of an incoming call, in order to ascertain the originating telephone number and block unwanted calls. These devices are advantageous because the user typically does not need to pay monthly fees. However, typical call screening devices block calls at individual telephone sets, thus premises with multiple telephone sets may require separate devices at each telephone set.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved call handling methods and devices.